And Miles to Go: The Biography of a Great Arabian Horse, Witez II

Witez II, purportedly the most magnificent Arabian horse ever, was born in Poland in 1938 and survived the Nazi, Russian and American invasions. This is his story--a gallant one--told with irrepressible sentiment. Any youthful interest aroused by the general aura of the stable will be squelched by the appearance of the young twins Stacia and Stasik, both of whom utter only deathless prose. Stacia and her Babka (grandmother) are both clairvoyant, so that the grim future is always agonizingly clear. There are some interesting scenes which present the plight of Poland first under the Germans, then caught between the Russians and the Americans, but the alternately pedantic, rhetorical, and tearful style obstructs appreciation. Witez never emerges as more. than a sweet-tempered, adored specimen, even after the sudden (tragic) disappearance of the pompous twins., as one after another human falls under the spell of his beauty.